Garment hanger



Oct. 10, 1961 c. H. KING EI'AL 3,003,669

GARMENT HANGER Filed Sept. 12, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TORS Charles H. King Marguerite V. was! Attorney Oct. 10, 1961 c. H. KING ETAL GARMENT HANGER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 12, 1960 INVENTOR.

Charles H. King BY Marguerite V. Attorn United States Patent O 3,003,669 GARMENT HANGER Charles H. King, Oakland, and Marguerite V. West, La-

fayette, Calif. (both of 166 Santa Clara Ave., Oakland 10, Calif.)

Filed Sept. 12, 1960, Ser. No. 55,604 Claims. (Cl. 223-91) The invention relates to garment hangers and particularly to those embodying a supplementary means for retaining a garment on the hanger.

Large numbers of garment hangers are used by the garment cleaning establishments for handling the cleaned and pressed garments in the cleaning plants and for delivery of the finished garments to the customers. These hangers are normally expendable from the cleaners standpoint and are left with the garment on delivery. The large volume demand for garment hangers of this type has evolved the very low cost conventional wire garment or coat hanger which consists of a single length of wire which is bent and twisted in a special purpose machine to provide a one piece wire hanger including a horizontal pant and skirt supporting section, upwardly tapered coat shoulder supporting sections, and a top rod or bar engaging hook for supporting the hanger and the garment thereon. The conventional wire garment hanger has certain disadvantages, principal among which are that certain garments such as pants and skirts will readily fall off from the hanger during handling and transportation, the situation being particularly aggravated by the bouncing, jarring and jiggling of the garments in delivery trucks; and the tendency of the narrow wire section support for the garment to place a crease in the portion of the garment draped or folded over the wire section. An object of the present invention is to provide a very simple and low cost addition to or an accessory part for the conventional wire garment hanger which will function in cooperation therewith to eliminate the principal disadvantages of the conventional hanger as above discussed in that the combination of the present invention will provide a firm, non-creasing support for the garment.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a garment hanger of the character described in which the garment holding parts are self-positioning for easy and most rapid and advantageous picking up of the garment and its movement to proper supporting position, thus permitting and effecting a reduction in labor cost in cleaning establishments. A further object of the present invention is to provide a garment hanger of the character above which while aifording a very firm support for the garment on the hanger will nevertheless permit of ready adjustment for straightening of the garment to a proper, unwrinkled support and will function automatically to hold the garment in its adjusted position.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which of the foregoing will be set forth in the following description of the preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification. It is to be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by the said drawings and description may be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Referring to sm'd drawings (2 Sheets):

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a garment hanger constructed in accordance with the present invention and shown operatively associated with a garment to be supported on the hanger.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the garment hanger.

FIGURE 3 is a bottom view of the garment hanger as suggested by the plane of line 3-3 of FIGURE 2.

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FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on a somewhat enlarged scale, the view being taken substantially on the plane of line 4-4 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken substantially on the plane of line 5-5 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken substantially on the plane of line 6-6 of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 7 is a cross sectional view of a portion of the hanger and garment supported thereby showing the holding action of the garment hanger parts.

FIGURE 8 is a cross sectional view similar to FIG- URE 7 but showing the garment releasing action of the parts.

FIGURE 9 is a fragmentary plan view partially in section showing a modified form of the invention.

The garment hanger of the present invention consists briefly in the combination of the normally horizontally disposed wire section 11, as provided by a conventional wire coat hanger 12, having ofiset end portions 13 and 14; and the garment hanging rod 16 formed at one end 17 with a cross slot 18 dimensioned to receive therein one of the end portions 13-14, the opposite end 21 of the rod being formed with a notch 22 positioned and dimensioned for detachable snap fitting with the other of the wire end portions, here end portion 14 thus disposing rod 16 in latched parallel and superimposed relation to the wire section 11.

As a feature of the present invention the cross slot 18 and engaged wire end portion 13 are so formed as to provide a restricted hinged movement of the rod to and from its latched parallel position and more particularly to support the rod 16 in a spaced downwardly sloping open position as depicted in FIGURE 1 for most ready and convenient placement of the free end 21 of the rod under a garment 26 to be supported thereby. This arrangement utilizes the normally curved form of the end portion 13 and 14 and which courses through the cross slot 18 in a curved path as seen in FIGURE 6.

The cross slot 18 has a Width slightly greater than the diameter of the wire in the end portion so as to provide limited clearance and accordingly limited articulation or hinged movement of the rod 16 around the end portion 13 as a center. Thus, when the opposite end 21 of the rod is detachehd from end portion 14 and the hanger manually supported as suggested in FIGURE 1 in generally a horizontal position, as over a Work table or the like, the free rod end 21 will hang down a few inches from end portion 14 so as to permit the insertion of rod end 21 under the garment 26 to be supported, such as for example under one of the folds 27 of a pair of pants, which may be draped over the rod as illustrated in FIG- URES 7 and 8 with opposite sides 27 and 28 of the garment depending from the rod. The free end 21 of the rod may then be swung to its closed, latched position in engagement with end portion 14 to thereby secure the garment in place as generally depicted in FIGURES 7 and 8. In this arrangement it will be noted that the rod 16 is of cylindrical form having a relatively large diameter, compared to the wire section 11 so as to provide a noncreasing support for the garment draped thereover, and the rod in its closed latched position is superimposed directly over the wire to thereby engage the garment side 27 between the rod and the wire. Accordingly, and as illustrated in FIGURE 8 the foregoing arrangement permits movement of garment side 27 away from the rod so as to straighten the garment on the rod, but automatically locks the garment against reverse movement as depicted in FIGURE 7, when the wire section 11 is drawn tightly against the garment side 27 and the rod 16. This arrangement works very well with a pair of pants as illustrated in FIGURE 1 wherein the normally lighter cuff side may be drawn upon to straighten the pants on the bar and the normally heavier waist end 28 Will provide the self-locking action above described in the handling and transportation of the garment and hanger.

As will be observed from the foregoing the rod 16 formed as above described may be furnished as an accessory to cleaning establishments using the conventional wire coat hanger and the operator may readily assemble the rod and hanger at the point of use and in this sense the rod itself is an article of manufacture and a subcombination of the rod and hanger considered as a whole. In order to render the rods immediately usable with all conventional'wire garment hangers, the rods are preferably formed with a plurality of longitudinally spaced notches, such as notches 22 and 32 in FIGURE 5 and which cooperate with the length of the rod to provide a resilient distention of the wire end portion 14 and a snap fitting thereof into one of the notches, thereby accommodating the rod to standard sizes of the hanger and normal manufacturing tolerances. In this arrangement notch 22 will be used with smaller sizes of garment hangers and notch 32 will be used with larger sizes of garment hangers. To facilitate the engagement of notches 22 and 32 with the associated garment hanger end 14, the top and bottom surfaces 33 and 34 of the rod end 21 are preferably flattened and formed with a small taper as best seen in FIGURE 2. Rod 16 may be formed of any suitable low cost and easily fabricated material including paper, plastic, wood or metal. Wood stock is here illus trated and preferably the exterior surface of the rod is roughened or formed of uneven character to improve the garment holding quality of the rod.

As seen in FIGURES 2, 3, 5 and 9 rod end 21 is bevelled in a plane perpendicular to wire end portion 14 for engaging and wedging outwardly wire end 14. The relatively greater length of rod 16 than the distance between hanger end portions applies a spreading force thereto and urges the wire 11 toward rod 16 causing a tight fitting relationship of the garment 27, the wire 11 and the rod16.

. The conventional Wire coat or garment hanger may be characterized for present purposes as a one-piece or length of wire which is bent and twisted, as depicted in FIG- URES l and 2 to provide a normally horizontal section 11, the rounded upturned end portions 13 and 14, the upwardly sloping coat shoulder supporting sections 36 and 37, and the upwardly extending hook 38 for mounting on a horizontal rod or bar, not shown.

A modified form of the invention is illustrated in FIG- URE 9 wherein a longitudinally or axially adjustable means 41 is provided at end 21a of rod 16a for insuring a resilient distention of wire end portion 14a and snap fitting thereof into notch 22a provided by means 41. As

here shown notch 22:: is formed in the head 42 of a screw member having a stem 43 threaded axially into rod end 21a so as to provide the longitudinal adjustment above noted. Preferably and as here shown a threaded sleeve member 44 may be mounted axially in rod end 2101 so as to provide a metal reinforcement therefor and a threaded bore 46 for stem 43, the latter arrangement being particularly desirable where rod 16a is formed of wood or other relatively soft material. The opposite end (not shown) of rod 16a is formed with a cross slot as in the first described embodiment dimensioned to receive therein end portion 13 of the wire hanger and to provide a hinged connection for swinging rod 16a to and from a position in superimposed parallel relation to the horizontal wire section 11a. Preferably, stem 43 has a relatively tight fitting engagement in bore 46 so as to maintain the proper longitudinally adjusted position of the head portion 42 for engagement with wire end portion 14a.

We claim:

1. A garment hanger comprising, a length of wire formed with a normally horizontally disposed section and offset normally upright end portions, a rigid garmenthanging and clamping rod formed at one end with an axially extending slot opening to said end and dimensioned to receive therein one of said end portions to provide a hinged connection permitting movement of said rod in a normally horizontal plane generally perpendicular to the other wire end portion, the opposite end of said rod being bevelled to provide a surface for engaging and wedging outwardly said last named wire end portion and being formed with a notch in said surface for detachable snap fitting with said last named wire end portion disposing said rod in latched parallel and superimposed relation to said wire, said rod providing between the bases of said slot and notch a fixed length greater than the normal spacing between said wire end portions thereby applying a spreading force thereto urging said horizontally disposed section toward said rod.

2. As a sub-combination for use with a wire garment hanger composed of a length of wire formed with a normally horizontally disposed section and offset end portions, a rigid garment hanging and clamping rod formed at one end with an axially extending slot opening to said end and dimensioned to receive therein one of said end portions to provide a hinged connection permitting movement of said rod in a normally horizontal plane generally perpendicular to the other wire end portions, the opposite end of said rod being bevelled to provide a surface for engaging and wedging outwardly said last named wire end portion and being formed with a notch in said bevelled end for detachable snap fitting with said last named wire end portion for disposing said rod in latched parallel and superimposed relation to said wire, said rod providing between the bases of said slot and notch a fixed length greater than the normal spacing between said wire end portions for applying a spreading force thereto urging said horizontally disposed section toward said rod.

3. A garment hanging and clamping rod as characterized in claim 2 wherein said bevelled surface is formed with a plurality of longitudinally spaced notches each dimensioned for snap fitting with said second wire end portion, said notches being spaced to accommodate said rod to standard sizes of said wire garment hanger and normal manufacturing tolerances.

4. A garment hanger comprising, a length of wire formed with a normally horizontally disposed section and first and second upwardly curved end portions lying in a common plane, a rigid garment hanging and clamping rod formed at one end with an axially extending slot opening to said end and dimensioned to receive therein said first wire end portion to provide a hinged connection to permit swinging movement of the opposite free end of said rod in a second plane generally perpendicular to said first named plane, the depth and breadth of said slot cooperating with the curvature of said first wire end portion to support said free end of said rod in a spaced downwardly sloping position with respect to said second wire end portion for placement of said free end under a garment to be supported on said rod, said free end being bevelled to provide a surface for engaging and wedging outwardly said second wire end portion and being formed with a notch in said surface for detachable snap fitting with said second wire end portion disposing said rod in latched parallel superimposed relation to said wire, said rod providing between the bases of said slot and notch a fixed length greater than the normal spacing between said wire end portions thereby applying a spreading force thereto urging said horizontally disposed section toward said rod.

5. A garment hanger comprising, a length of wire formed with a normally horizontally disposed section and offset normally upright end portions, a rigid garment hanging and clamping rod formed at one end with an axially extending slot opening to said end and dimensioned to receive therein one of said wire end portions to provide a hinged connection permitting movement of the opposite free end of said rod in a normally horizontal plane generally perpendicular to the other wire end portion, means mounted at the free end of said rod and providing a bevelled face for engaging and wedging outwardly said last-named wire end portion and being formed with a notch in said face for detachable snap fitting with said last-named wire end portion disposing said rod in latched parallel and superimposed relation to said wire, said rod and means providing between the bases of said slot and notch a fixed length greater than the normal spacing between said wire end portions thereby applying a spreading force thereto urging said horizontally disposed section toward said rod, said means having a stem threaded axially into said rod for adjusting the relative longitudinal positioning of said face and controlling the resilient distension applied to said wire end portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Oichman Apr. 26, 1910 Hamilton Nov. 14, 1911 Batts Apr. 29, 1930 McFall Dec. 2, 1947 Latvala Nov. 27, 1951 Seegrist Feb. 10, 1959 Seegrist June 21, 1960 McDonald Jan. 10, 1961 

